Bridegroom Price in Urban India: Class, Caste and 'Dowry Evil' Among Christians in Madras

Why Dowry Payments Declined with Modernization in Europe but Are Rising in India

“…Interestingly, in a set of 105 interviews conducted by Krishnakumari, Geetha, and Shantha Mohan (1984) in the city of Bangalore, 29 percent of respondents believed that intercaste marriage would greatly reduce the problem of dowry. A case study of Christians in Madras revealed that increasing dowry payments occurred among those with a caste affiliation, whereas among those who were casteless there was no comparable effect (see Caplan 1984). Caplan concludes that this provides evidence that dowry payments should be seen as a means of "preserving endogamous boundaries in a heterogeneous setting" (p. 216).…”

“…Asymmetries between men and women further extend into the process of selecting mates. Typically, in India, the most important quality of a bride is a good appearance, whereas for a groom it is the ability to earn a living, often reflected in his educational level (see, e.g., Hooja 1969;Avasthi 1979;Rao and Rao 1980;Caldwell et al 1983;Caplan 1984;Billig 1992;Chauhan 1995).…”

Women and kinship: comparative perspectives on gender in South and South-East Asia

“…As regards the Protestants who belong to the Church of South India, Caplan (1984) does not directly speak of the existence of patrilineal, patri-virilocal families; but the way he describes the utilization of what he calls bridegroom price, which is paid by the bride's father, points towards the authority and leadership of the groom's father. This seems to indicate that the joint family is a phase, howsoever brief, in the cycle.…”

“…The phenomenon of dowry has been analysed extensively (see, for example, Government of India 1974, L. Dube 1983b, U. Sharma 1984, Akanda and Shamim 1985, L. Caplan 1984, Visvanathan 1989, Ghadially and Kumar 1988, Srinivas 1984. In order to explain dowry it is necessary to examine some social structural and cultural features of Indian society that have provided the bases and the context for the new influences that have brought about this bizarre commercialization of marriage.…”

“…Wives commit suicide, and violence such as acid-throwing and murder, more or less absent in the past, has arisen. Dowries of clothes, jewellery, and household goods for the bride and cash for the son-in-law and his father are prevalent among the essentially patrilineal Christians of various denominations in southern and south-western India (L. Caplan 1984, Visvanathan 1989, R. Robinson 1994. Many young women earn their own dowries, migrating all over the world for jobs; and many marry relatively late.…”